I’ve just published my hourly illustrated journal from July 2017, entitled “Waking Hours in the Life of a Wanderer”.
You can preview the entire work below, and purchase your own copy here:
Earlier this year, I started attending a figure drawing session at Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica. For a couple of months I attended weekly, then took a break for the summer, and came back this fall again for weekly sessions.
I will be posting more selections from my work as I look back at these drawings (now sitting in a pile on the floor of my studio or in a large drawing pad), but here are five from yesterday’s session.
If you’ve been following my Instagram or Facebook posts, you’ll know that I had a weeklong period of rest during October, brought on by a serious respiratory virus that knocked me down completely. I found myself feeling extreme gratitude for even one breath. Everything slowed down. I could not “do” anything except focus on breathing for several days.
The gift was that I became aware of a deeper current running through my life and my work right now. I remembered the reason I make art. I felt my soul’s hunger for the food of nourishment provided by PLAY, which is the quality that led me to my visual art practice in the first place, back in 2013. Continue reading
I’ve had a whirlwind summer of travel, and now I have a few weeks to catch up and review what I created!
My return trip to Gettysburg this year was delightful and busy! I was a visiting teacher at Adams County Arts Council, where I had the joy of teaching a weeklong Sketchbook Journaling summer camp for youth, ages 10 to 13, as well as an adult creativity workshop entitled, “Hope for the Late-Blooming Creative”. I also did an Instagram takeover of Destination Gettysburg for the week, posting three photos a day on their account. On top of that, with the generous support of Lynda Taylor, Monica E. Oss, and J. Jay Mackie of Gettysburg, I was able to transform the lobby of an old bank building into a pop-up exhibition space for one evening. All in one week! This left me few large swaths of time to sketch on the battlefield, but instead compelled me to capture smaller moments around town when I could.
Here are the results.
First some airport sketches: I was astonished that this father was carrying two backpacks (one in front, one in back), and three suitcases through the SFO airport. His partner carried one child in a front pack and a toddler walking next to her. They were not smiling.
Brief layover in Chicago, drawing some faces from memory…
Noticed that the Susquehanna River through Harrisburg was brown with high water, reminding me of some of the swollen rivers I had seen in Southeast Asia.
Then my first meal of the day, with rain pouring outside, at Food 101 in Gettysburg. Delicious! I got caught up in all the ceiling tiles and never got around to sketching my food.
Morning sketch of the Evergreen Cemetery gate on Baltimore Pike in Gettysburg:
Sketch from the back patio of Ragged Edge Coffee House:
And a quick sketch of my food from Ragged Edge:
Quick 10-minute pen and ink sketch (colored in later) of the flowers in the back garden of my airbnb:
My afternoon sketch of the Pennsylvania Monument on the Gettysburg battlefield — almost three hours in the sun doing this one!
I find a shady spot to capture the Gettysburg Hotel, and happen to sit in front of this Ford Model A:
And a report on the magic unfolding, as it always does for me, in Gettysburg:
I am driving around, chasing the sunset, when I catch this view of the Eisenhower Farm, and I pull my car over to sketch from the side of the road.
Wandering around the Soldier’s National Cemetery before 100 Nights of Taps, I notice the bronzed words of the Gettysburg address at the base of this statue.
I take some rubbings in my sketchbook, and I look forward to using them in a future piece:
My students receive a surprise invitation to visit the attic of the Seminary Ridge Museum and sketch the views from there. I manage to snag a 10-minute quick sketch in between taking photos of them.
Every morning as I walked out the back door of my airbnb to go the half-block to Adams County Arts Council, I saw this view of the Thaddeus Stevens log cabin on Middle Street. One morning I finally took out my stool and sketched it.
More food notes and sketches.
At the end of my trip to Gettysburg, I had one afternoon to spend in Harrisburg before leaving on an early morning train to Vermont. It was a gorgeous day, so I luxuriated in a sketch walk around the capitol building and riverfront, followed by dinner at Cork & Fork.
Harrisburg State Capitol Building, with a lime green dome (!):
Study of a historic mansion’s roofline on Front Street:
Wanted to find a way to quickly record some of the architecture and the presence of the river on this walk, so I attempted an illustrated map:
At dinner, I sat outside and could not help being inundated with the loud conversation of the table behind me. I embraced it as a illustration opportunity and created this collage of phrases overheard:
The food was excellent, and I had to create this mini tribute to Cork & Fork Harrisburg:
Visit my Facebook page for photos of my students at work, and stay tuned for stories and images of my time in Vermont!
Once again, this year I had the opportunity to go to Yosemite National Park in July for twelve days (see here for my 2016 trip stories and sketches). Four nights, five days of wilderness backpacking followed by seven days six nights of volunteering for Yosemite Conservancy. Below are the images from my backpacking trip.
I used a small, handmade sketchbook using landscape shaped scraps of watercolor paper, painted cardboard box covers, and nylon yarn as binding. My tools were a Pigma Micron 01 pen, a Pigma Sensei 06 pen, Aquash large and medium size water brushes, and my own mini palettes of Daniel Smith watercolors (sixteen total colors). The last three pages I finished coloring when I got to Yosemite Valley on the afternoon of Day Five. The rest I completed on site, in the backcountry. All except the rout map were painted from memory or en plein air, not from photographs.
I also returned to an old favorite format: 6-inch by 6-inch squares, which I brought on my 2014 trip to Yosemite while I was completing work for the 50|50 show, a 50-day process of creating fifty works, all measuring six inches by six inches. I love the small square format, and Fluid Watercolor paper from Global Art Materials, Inc., comes in a great portable block that fits in my front pack in the backcountry. I love the Fluid “Easy Block” because it’s easy to remove finished paintings in the field (a key feature for backcountry sketching). Also, the paper is acid-free and archival, meaning the finished pieces are ready to be mounted or framed.
Stay tuned for images from my Yosemite Valley week…to be posted after I get back from Gettysburg!
To see more daily art, follow me on Instagram or like my Facebook page.
To become a patron of my art with a monthly donation, visit my Patreon page.
If you’ve followed me on Instagram (@drlisachu), you’ve seen pages from my daily illustrated journal practice called “Before 10am”, which I’ve kept since July 2016…that’s over 150 consecutive days so far! I have kept a written journal for many years of my life, but only recently, in 2013, did I start playing with blank pages of a sketchbook, permitting not only words and sentences to appear on the page, but also colors, lines, shapes, scribbles, collage, and other experimental images. This liberating practice has led me and followed me through the daily routine of home life, to wilderness adventures in several national parks, and everything in between. This one new habit has changed my life by deepening my observations of the world around me, and slowing me down each day to reflect on what I have experienced. It has also given me an object to share with others, and a way of connecting with people around the world via social media.
I just returned from a road trip to Death Valley National Park, where I celebrated my birthday. While there, I learned that “Timbisha” is the Shoshone name for their home (which we call “Death Valley”). The word “Timbisha” refers to the sacred red color of the rocks in the area, and symbolizes the future, or the way forward. As Park Ranger Alexandra, a geographer who led a brief program in one of the colorful canyons in Death Valley, shared various theories on the formation of the canyons, she also said that many of the Shoshone stories of this place are stories she is not allowed to tell. Continue reading
I am BACK from my trip to Gettysburg! I added on a week in Richmond, Virginia, visiting three museums of the Confederacy, Appomattox National Park, and Monticello.
I made a LOT of artwork, and continued my “Before 10am” illustrated journal series every day (which you can always see on Instagram!).
I am busily pulling together all the artwork, scanning, setting up an exhibition and talk schedule, first in Half Moon Bay in November.
In the meantime, here are some previews of my favorite journal pages from the month:
Today, before 10am.
Last day at home for awhile. Took a longer than usual walk on the beach…with sand dollars and terns and oceans of open sand, washed clean from last night’s tide. Enjoyed a cup of tea and some toast while I looked at more photos of artifacts and stories from Gettysburg. [Note: I am still not packing for my trip, which is mildly concerning.]
Yes, I am headed to Gettysburg National Park TOMORROW. I was twice a finalist for the National Parks Arts Foundation artist residency, so I decided to create my own. I found a cute little lower-level apartment for rent from a kiwi farmer and her husband. When she heard I am an artist and saw my work, she began sending me all kinds of resources on local artists, and offered to introduce me to many of her contacts who are involved in arts patronage in Gettysburg. Patronage starts with these small acts of kindness, nurturing connections by going above and beyond the transaction.
I will be setting up a Patreon page to invite you to contemplate becoming a patron of my art. Right now, my contributions to the world remain largely outside the formal economy. My most deeply interesting and gratifying work has happened by showing up and saying “Yes”, trusting in what will come from my enthusiasm, care, and attention.
Patreon is crowd-sourced arts patronage. It’s like a virtual tip jar, allowing you to “high five”, encourage, and cheer me on in my work, as I make and share with you what I discover. It’s a form of arts patronage that is unique to the internet age. I hope you’ll join me in this exciting venture. Stay tuned for a url where you can get involved!
P.S. This “Today, before 10am” project started back in July on Instagram, where every day I have created a one-page illustrated journal of something I noticed or experienced that day before 10am. I continued it in Yosemite and I will continue it at Gettysburg in expanded form!
This actually happened!
